Let me ask you: What do you do when you see something you don't like much, but haven't seen enough of it to truly hate it? This is the conumdrum I face after watching the pilot of The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

Before I go any further, I'd like to state the obvious and warn you that this is the POV of a nerdcore Terminator fan. However, I should probably go into a bit more detail.

I wasn't always so devoted to the universe. Sure, I did like the films but I never thought them different from any other science fiction franchise involving robots. When I got Xbox Live in Christmas of 2004 and was asked to create a Gamertag, I chose "TERMINATOR444" because that was the first badass sounding title that popped in my head. From then on, I used carried this tag into other networks such as Livejournal. In the past year, I rediscovered the Terminator films and realized what made them so great (hint: It has to do with fate). While I am overall the better for it, watching the first two films made me realize the downfall the series has had ever since James Cameron ceased to have anything to do with it. Watching T3 again was the start of this epihany. It just didn't hold up to T1 and T2.

What does this have to do with the SCC? I'm seeing the same decline in it, that's what. First bad omen was the fact that none of the main cast from the trilogy can be found. I understand that Ahnold can't participate, but when you have so little to connect your little TV series to the movies, you can't help but see ominous scribbles every time you look at the wall.

Of course, I could overlook that irritating truth if the actress playing Sarah Connor stayed true to the character. I didn't get that impression from the pilot. Lena Headey's Sarah Connor is sensible yet thin as a toothpick. Linda Hamilton's Sarah Connor was muscular and psychotic. It's a inexcusable disparity that only makes it harder for me as a "classic" Terminator fan to watch this series.

I know what your response is going to be to both complaints. "You're too devoted to the past films. You need to distinguish the SCC as being its own chapter in the series and stop holding it up to T2." You're right, actually. I admit it. While I preferred the first Terminator, I do believe that its sequel was a revolutionary film that "made" the franchise, and that anything with "Terminator" slapped on it should be held to its standard. Circumstances be damned, I say!

Unfortunatly, this attitude isn't confined to fanboys like me, and that's the huge rust stain on post-Cameron Terminator. T3 simply relied to much on action scenes recycled from T2. Unlike T2, which put interesting twists on scenes from T1(Gas tanker becomes liquid nitrogen tanker), T3 went for sheer half-assed duplication (shooting up cop cars with a minigun becomes shooting up cop cars with a boring machine gun). I believe the people who worked on the film thought too much about making it into Terminator 2 and stopped thinking about Terminator 3. I'm worried that the SCC will go down the same path. Hell, they've already dragged out a minor character from T2.

Like the ending of T2, however, there is a glimmer of hope. Cromatie seems to have what it takes to be a good "evil" Terminator, and I do think that the new "Feminator" could add a layer of depth to the Connor mother/son team by playing the role of a sister figure to John just as Ahnold was the father figure. If they can find a way to make the show halfway decent in staunch opposition to all the challenges, then maybe I can forgive them for the mistakes they will inevitably make along the way.

Fellow fans may think I'm being too soft on the series, but this is the pilot. I'll watch the start of the series proper tommorow night. Whether it picks up or takes a nosedive, you'll here it from the first. All I have left to say is Hasta la Vista, baby, and good night.